It may well be true that most of the spam is coming in when I am asleep ... in which case I for one am most-grateful to those of you out there who laboriously “deal with it.”

If we are going to come up with some “user-response based” treatment for spam, then I definitely think that this response should include at least these three features:

Get rid of Anonymous Monk. Maybe there are those who think that the ability to comment and to vote anonymously is a fabulous freedom, but this is the only forum-site that I am aware of which allows it. It lets someone lurk around the corner and shoot spitballs.

Expand the idea of “up/down voting” (and “consideration”) to include categorized reasons. A mere number does not say diddly-squat. Whereas ratings or tags, which can be tabulated, could be very useful indeed, even for years to come.

Consider the utility of allowing the votes of certain users to count many-times more than others. For instance, Popes such as yourself could nary-well be gods. Perhaps even with the power to permanently excommunicate pesky fellow Monks with whom Your Eminences simply do not see eye-to-eye? (It occurs to me that this thought might have for you a certain appeal ...)

You once again demonstrate that you have either have a very short memory; or a very selective one.

I recall -- but cannot be bothered to look up -- someone posting a long list of other sites that allow anonymous posters -- in direct reply to one of your previous assertions of this myth.

You should by now be very aware that this isn't going to happen; so why keep flogging that dead horse?

I learned early on here that looking to change the way this place works is a forlorn hope.

The possibility of change is in the purview of those with neither the time to make major changes; nor the willingness to allow other to do so.

Get over it; or use those skills you claim and write your own forum. Do a good job and maybe you'll attract many converts.

Probably your worst idea to date. (And quite a turn around from the man who was decrying the possibility of "author-based consideration" just a couple of days ago.)

And no, the idea holds no appeal for me. I have no special privileges here -- I long ago turned down the possibility of joining the inner sanctum -- and I prefer that it stay that way. One man; one opinion; one vote per expression of it.

With the rise and rise of 'Social' network sites: 'Computers are making people easier to use everyday'

Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.

"Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".

In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.

When putting a smiley right before a closing parenthesis, do you:

Use two parentheses: (Like this: :) )
Use one parenthesis: (Like this: :)
Reverse direction of the smiley: (Like this: (: )
Use angle/square brackets instead of parentheses
Use C-style commenting to set the smiley off from the closing parenthesis
Make the smiley a dunce: (:>
I disapprove of emoticons
Other